On the heels of revelations that MSNBC's premier progressive and Trump-hater, Joy Reid, has in the past written some very nasty things about gays and others, comes word that last Friday night White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave a restaurant because the owner dislikes her politics.
The northern Virginia eatery is called the Red Hen and is owned by a woman named Stephanie Wilkinson. Wilkinson later claimed that she and her staff had moral objections to the Trump administration’s reluctance to have taxpayers pay for elective transgenderizing surgery and hormones for soldiers, and over the weekend many on the left celebrated her bold slap in the face to Trump and his minions.
Of course, had a bakery owner declined to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple because of moral objections to gay weddings, or if a Jewish restaurateur declined on moral or political grounds to serve a Muslim who was known to be anti-zionist, or a white refused on moral grounds to serve a black patron who had publicly favored massive civil disobedience, the progressive left would have been screaming that this was a violation of the patrons' constitutional rights. They would have been initiating lawsuits and calling for the offending business to be shut down.
But, of course, it's okay for a progressive to discriminate against a conservative because, well, it's the moral thing to do.
It's okay for progressives to refuse service in a public accomodation to someone with whom they disagree politically. It's okay for a fashion designer to refuse to design a dress for the First Lady for political reasons. It's okay for progressives to incite violence as Maxine Waters is doing with her absurd calls for more intimidation of conservatives. It's okay for progressives like Donny Deutsch to call Trump voters nazis on MSNBC. It's okay for progressives to harass politicians and their families, but were a conservative to do any of these things they'd be prosecuted, sued, fired, run out of business.
As Joy Pullman observes, however, there's a big difference between the polite refusals of the cake bakers and florists to participate in a gay wedding and the refusal of Ms Wilkinson to serve Sarah Sanders' party:
The Christian [business people] happily serve and sell to LGBT people. Both Phillips and Stutzman explicitly have, and eagerly offer to continue, serving those they disagree with. The only thing they will not do is participate in a religious ceremony with them. Every other commercial transaction is on the table.Progressives promote tolerance but are themselves often exceedingly intolerant. They condemn bigotry but are themselves bigots. They talk about civility but call for harassment and even violence not only against political figures and their families but also employees of ICE and their families. Indeed, they advocate the harassment of anyone who disagrees with their agenda.
On the contrary, the Trump political opponents who refuse service will not do so in any fashion. It has nothing to do with religion or a particular context or message for them. They refuse to serve the group they disagree with entirely.
One wonders what principles, if any, guide people on the left. It's a good thing for progressives that so many voters don't care much about consistent adherence to principle. If they did very few progressives would get many votes. They certainly wouldn't get votes on the basis of their ideas because they articulate none. They appeal only to raw force and intimidation.
Sarah Sanders is probably too gracious a lady to do it, but I wish she'd initiate a lawsuit against the Red Hen. Ms Wilkinson deserves a taste of the left's own medicine.